Oliver Plunket (East Aisle – first window on left up from door): St. Patricks Church, Millstreet
Oliver Plunket (1625-1681) was appointed archbishop of Armagh in 1669. The special cross he is holding in his left hand is a patriarchal or archiepiscopal cross. He was one of only two Catholic bishops in Ireland at that time and as a result he had a huge work-load – within the first few months of his appointment, he confirmed 10,000 people. He had good relations with the Protestant clergy and gentry. However, the panic caused by the false allegations of Titus Oates in 1678 resulted in his arrest. He was charged in Dundalk with plotting to bring 20,000 French soldiers into Ireland. He was imprisoned in Newgate in England until 1681. There was no basis whatever for the allegations brought against him but he wasn’t given time or opportunity to defend himself. He wrote a most interesting letter from prison a few days before his execution: “Sentence of death was passed against me on the fifteenth. It has not caused me the least terror or deprived me of even a quarter of an hour’s sleep. I am as innocent of all treason as the child born yesterday. As for my character, profession and function, I did own it publicly, and that being also a motive of my death, I die most willingly. And being the first among the Irish, I shall, with God’s grace, give good example to the others not to fear death. I expect daily to be brought to the place of execution where my bowels are to be cut out and burned before my face, and then my head to be cut off.” This is the barbaric death he suffered in Tyburn on 1st July 1684 – it is indicated in the lower part of the window. When this window was made, Oliver Plunket was “Blessed” but he was canonized in 1976 and his feast is on 1st July.
(The inscription at the foot of the window reads: “Erected to the memory of Denis and Margaret Crowley of Millstreet by their son Cornelius. 1944”)
by Msgr. M. Manning, P.P., V.G.
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The stained glass window was made by Clement Watson & Co of Youghal, one of three Watson windows in St.Patrick’s Church [ref]
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The stained glass window was erected by Cornelius D. Crowley (1879-1972), of Finnstown House, Lucan, Co Dublin, Roscrea, Co Tipperary, and originally from Coole House, Millstreet. He was anxious to be remembered in his native Millstreet, and so in 1944 erected this window (and another at the same time) to his parents, Denis and Maria Crowley, in Saint Patrick’s Church, Millstreet, in 1944.
“At that time, Finnstown House was the home of my Great Uncle Con and Great-Aunt Hannah. Cornelius D. Crowley (1879-1972), of Finnstown House, Lucan, Co Dublin, and Roscrea, Co Tipperary, was originally from Millstreet, Co Cork. He was one of my great-uncles, a brother of my grandmother, Maria (Crowley) Murphy (1882-1953) of Millstreet, Co Cork.
For many years Con Crowley was a director of the Roscrea Meat Company with his brother Jeremiah D. Crowley of Wallstown Castle, Castltownroche, Co Cork – the other directors included Robert Briscoe TD and G Fasenfeld. After World War II, Con Crowley” – by Patrick Comerford
